Bali conference allowed the world to go to work on the climate

By Jeffrey Sachs

The world has taken an important step toward controlling climate change by agreeing to the Bali Action Plan at the global negotiations in Indonesia earlier this month. The plan may not look like much, since it basically committed the world to more talking rather than specific actions, but I am optimistic for three reasons.

First, the world was sufficiently united that it forced the US to end its intransigence.

Second, the road map marks a sensible balance of considerations.

And third, realistic solutions are possible, which will allow the world to combine economic development and control of greenhouse gases.

The first step at Bali was to break the deadlock that has crippled the global response to climate change since the signing of the Kyoto Protocol a decade ago. This time the world united, even booing the US lead negotiator until she reversed her position and agreed to sign the Bali Action Plan.

Likewise, the unwillingness of major developing countries such as China and India to sign on to a plan also seems to be ending, though considerable work remains to craft a global agreement to which both rich and poor countries can agree.

Doing so requires balancing many concerns. First, we must stabilize greenhouse gases in order to avoid dangerous human interference in the climate system -- the key goal of the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the global treaty under which the Bali negotiations took place. Second, we must accomplish this while leaving room for continued rapid economic development and poverty reduction. Poor countries do not and will not accept a system of climate control that condemns them to continued poverty. Third, we must help countries adapt to the climate change that is already occurring and that will intensify.

The Bali Action Plan addresses all three concerns. The plan's main point is to establish an Ad Hoc Working Group to reach a detailed global agreement by 2009 that will set "measurable, reportable and verifiable" commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Such commitments are to be taken in the context of "sustainable development," meaning that "economic and social development and poverty reduction are global priorities." The plan also calls for knowledge transfer to enable poor countries to adopt environmentally sound technologies.

The great question, of course, is whether stabilization of greenhouse gases, continued economic development and adaptation to climate change can be achieved simultaneously. Using our current technologies, no; but if we develop and rapidly adopt new technologies that are within our scientific reach, yes.

The most important challenge is to reduce, and eventually nearly eliminate, carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal. These fuels are at the core of the modern world economy, supplying around four-fifths of the world's commercial energy. Such emissions can be eliminated by either shifting to renewable forms of energy or reducing the emissions from fossil fuels.

The key insight is that roughly 75 percent of our fossil fuel use goes for just a few purposes: to produce electricity and heat at power plants, to drive automobiles, to heat buildings and to power a few key industries such as refineries, petrochemicals, cement and steel. We need new environmentally sound technologies in each of these sectors.